"Benson," she answered her phone without masking the exhaustion in her voice.

"Oh my God Liv. I can't…she's not… oh my God." Olivia immediately recognized the panicking voice of Kathleen Stabler.

"Woah woah. Slow down Katie. What's going on?" Olivia knew full well why Kathleen was freaking out, and she was sure it had everything to do with a missing Lizzie.

Kathleen let out a short cry before taking a breath and answering. "I can't find Liz anywhere. She was supposed to stay at my apartment last night, and I got home really late. I had a date, but she was here when I left. She was fine! I swear she was fine. Oh god, I should have just stayed home."

"Kathleen. I need you to slow down for me. Breathe." Olivia waited until she could hear a slow inhale and exhale on the other end. "I have Liz with me," she said slowly. She couldn't reveal much, but she also didn't want Kathleen to lose her mind with worry.

A relieved sob echoed across the line. "Is she okay? What happened? Oh God, is she hurt? Why didn't she call me?" Kathleen continued to rattle off questions, and Olivia waited for the onslaught to subside.

The shower was still running, so Olivia knew she had at least a few more minutes to talk. "She's okay. A little banged up from…" she honestly didn't know the whole story yet. "I don't know exactly. She's okay though. She probably didn't want to call you and worry you while you were out so she called me."

"She could have called. I told her I should have just stayed home." Kathleen was pulling in all the blame, and Olivia knew it would only get worse when she found out what actually happened. "It's not your fault baby. She's with me and she's safe. I'm going to see if she wants me to take her home…"

"She won't want to go home," Kathleen quickly cut in.

"Any reason why?" Olivia wasn't exactly fishing for case information, but something about the way Kathleen said it made her wonder if it might be relevant.

Kathleen sighed. "Her live-in boyfriend cheated. She just found out, and they had a big blow up fight about it. I took her out for a girls day yesterday to get her mind off of everything, but I already had this date planned…and I felt weird about leaving. I knew she wasn't in a good headspace. I should have just stayed."

Olivia mentally noted the breakup as something that could prove important down the line, but she continued to reassure Kathleen. "It's not your fault Katie. Things happen and you couldn't have known." The sound of the shower running continued and Olivia grew concerned. Lizzie had been in the shower for a very very long time. "Hey, can I call you in a little bit? Once things settle?"

Kathleen sniffled and then responded. "Yeah please. Do I need to pick her up anywhere? God did you guys need to go to the hospital?"

Olivia sensed Kathleen's panic beginning to rise. "She's okay," Olivia reiterated. "I'll take her wherever she needs to go and then call you."

"Okay. Okay" Kathleen began to settle a little. "Tell her to call me when she can."

Olivia knew Katie needed the reassurance of hearing her sister's voice. "I will." Olivia's eyes flicked to the shower again. "I gotta go, but call you soon."

"Okay." Kathleen let out another long breath. "Talk to you soon."

Olivia hung up the phone, and slowly stepped towards the closed bathroom door. She heard the sound of water pelting tile, but not much else. She raised her fist and rapped on the door lightly. She leaned in closer and asked, "Liz, you alright?" Olivia's discomfort was amplified with Lizzie's lack of response. She tried the door handle, and found it unlocked. She cracked the door open and spoke through the crack, wanting to allow her whatever privacy she could. "Lizzie, I just need to know you're okay and then I can leave you alone."

Olivia became more concerned so she pushed the door open further. She made a lot of noise she wouldn't startle her, but beyond the sound of the water the bathroom was silent.

Olivia approached the shower curtain and tried her name one more time. "Liz?" When she was met with more silence she peeled the curtain back slowly. Her heart broke.

Lizzie sat on the tiled shower floor. Her knees were pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her clothes had long since been tossed aside, collected in evidence bags for later analysis. Steam filled the room, making the air thick and foggy. The near scalding water pelted Liz's back as she stared blankly at the stark white tile in front of her. Olivia knew that look, hell, she had lived that look. The vacant stare was all too familiar.

Worried Lizzie might damage her skin with the water temperature, Olivia turned the knob to a slightly cooler position. "Liz," she tried again gently. She still didn't respond so Olivia slowly reached out. Her stomach sank at the bruising that was beginning to darken over the younger woman's body. She let out a slow breath and pushed away images of her own bruised and battered body. For the first time in a long time those memories physically hurt. For a moment the pain and ache of fresh bruises all over her body flooded over her. She reminded herself that her pain had long since passed, and she was safe, she was okay, but Lizzie needed her now.

Her hand gently brushed Liz's wet shoulder, causing her to jerk almost violently. Her eyes darted towards Olivia and the now electric blue flashed with terror. By now Olivia was very familiar with trauma response and proceeded carefully, not wanting to make things worse.

She took a step back, giving Lizzie some space. She shucked her jacket and hung it on a nearby handrail. She let the water continue to run as she sat on the floor outside the shower. She sat silently, providing silent support. She couldn't change this, but she could be here.

After a few minutes Liz broke the silence. "I can't get it out of my head, and I feel like I'm going to be stuck there forever."

Olivia nodded in understanding. "It will feel like that for a while, but not forever."

"I can't go home," Liz stared at the tile grout.

"I know," Olivia tread carefully. "Kathleen called. She's worried."

"Shit!" She scrambled to her feet and Olivia reached for a towel. "She's probably freaking out so bad. Damn it!"

"She was a little panicky, but she's fine." Liz wrapped the towel around herself and Olivia gently grabbed her shoulders. "Slow down. She's okay. She's worried about you, and I am too."

Liz pushed her fingers through her wet hair. She shook her head as if she didn't know what to do with that. Even as a child Lizzie was a mellow kid who kept the peace and tried to make as little fuss as possible. She seemed to sense the need to balance out her brother's more combative temperament. She didn't like causing stress, and she hated being a problem.

"Listen," Olivia took a slow breath. They needed to get out of the hospital, and find a place to let her rest. Then they could tackle everything that came next. "Right now things are about you. Everyone else can deal with things as they come, but we need to get you taken care of."

Tears pressed the corners of Lizzie's eyes, "I feel stuck."

Her overwhelm was obvious. "One thing at a time okay. You get dressed, and then we will figure out what's next. The nurse should be here soon to go over some things, and then we will go from there."

Lizzie nodded and bit her lip nervously. Olivia knew she didn't want to be alone. She felt a shudder run through her. When you're alone the memories come back. "I'll be just outside the door. I'm not going anywhere." She reached out and squeezed her hand before slipping out of the bathroom.

-000-

"So wait, we're supposed to go to this girl's apartment to get her stuff?" Churlish tailed Velasco out of the precinct.

Velasco rolled his eyes. "Yes. And hopefully we can talk to the boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend or whatever."

Churlish glanced around the squad room, "Shouldn't Sarge be here by now?"

"Well, because someone got too annoying…" he shot her a smirking smile, "He's meeting Cap somewhere to talk to the vic."

"They won't just bring her down to the station?" Churlish still felt a little hazy as to why they were handling this with kid gloves. She wanted to treat this like any other case.

Velasco sighed and stopped walking just short of the door. "This one is going to be different. If you can get that in your head you will be way less confused."

"Okay okay." She grumbled. "I get that, and I know she's the daughter of her old partner, but it still feels a bit…much."

Velasco pushed the door open and allowed Churlish to exit first. "Benson and Stabler were…" he let out a low sort of whistle. "They were almost legendary. They were partners for more than a decade. That's…it's a long time to know and trust a person."

"He's with OCCB now right?" Churlish remembered him from their most joint case.

"Yeah. He was gone for a long time between SVU and the OCCB position though. There's a lot of rumor and shit around it. Not sure how much is actually true, but they were super close and then he sort of just fell off the face of the planet for ten years."

"That's…really weird." Who does that? "If they were so close… that's just…" weird.

"Like I said, there are tons of rumors. Lots of people think they crossed a line, like on a personal level. I don't know if it's true, and I don't think anyone knows the full story. Well. Maybe Sarge does. Next to Benson he's been in SVU the longest. He was there all the years the two were partners."

They had made it to the car and Churlish pulled on the passenger side door handle. "Ten years…I guess she probably watched his kids grow up."

"Exactly," Velasco responded. "Cap didn't have her kid back then so all of this…it's probably like all this shit is happening to her own kid."

"Damn," Churlish said solemnly as she slid into the passenger seat.

"I overheard that Stabler's on a case right now, and I'm thinking he's probably under. Probably why the vic called Cap instead of her dad."

"Where's her mom?" Churlish asked cautiously. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Dead." Velasco kept his eyes on the road. "Murdered right in front of him."

"God." Tragedy seemed to stalk the man. "That's. Damn that's…" there really weren't words.

The stopped at a stoplight and Velasco shifted his body so he was almost facing Churlish. "So just go along with stuff okay? Don't pick at every little thing with this one. If rules are bent a little you might have to chill out." His eyes moved over to hers, and she could feel the seriousness radiating off of him. "You've grown on me girl, but my loyalty is with the Captain and Sarge. If you can't look away then you might want to drop this case. I'll call in Bruno." He turned himself back towards the steering wheel as traffic began to move.

She shook her head. She trusted her team, and more than anything she trusted her captain. Benson was straightlaced, and even if she bent some rules Churlish was sure she wouldn't be ethically compromised. "It's okay. I'm all in."